Episode 87: Chantal Brodrick on The Business of Fitness

"Nothing Replaces a Face to Face Conversation"

About Today's Guest

Chantal Brodrick worked for 15 years  in senior sales and marketing roles in the media industry before transitioning careers.  In 2008 she became a qualified Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor.  Soon after she combined her corporate background with her love of fitness and became a Fitness Business Coach.  In 2015 Chantal became the host of The Fitness Business Podcast.  Now with over 217 shows and 350,000 downloads, it is the world's leading podcast for fitness business owners and managers.

Chantal has interviewed over 250 fitness industry leaders, coaches, consultants and authors including Jim Worthington, Rick Caro, Bill McBride, Brent Darden, Derek Gallup, Alison Flatley, Mo Hagan, Carrie Kepple, Emma Barry, Ryan Holiday, Jeb Blount, Michelle Segar and hundreds more.

In 2019 Chantal was recognized as 1 of 20 'Women Who Inspire' by IHRSA's Club Business International Magazine and this year she is a featured speaker and MC at industry events across the world including, IHRSA, FILEX, IDEA, Athletic Business Show and FITEX.

 

Show Notes

We begin the show by talking about how Chantal’s first job began with a 15-year career in media and marketing roles. Fitness was her second career and even though she got a relatively late start in the industry, her marketing background made up for any time lost.

After three years of juggling her media and fitness careers, she took the leap to move into fitness fulltime. Chantal shares that the first three years were a struggle, as despite having a business background she was finding herself piecing things together and was becoming too spread out over too many areas to make an impact and almost gave up. However, once she decided to tap into her past and utilize her media background in her present career she soared and she became determined to use her skills to help others in the industry who were also struggling and teach them the business skills necessary to turn their passion into a sustainable business.

Chantal encourages everyone to really think strategically about any move that you want to make and invites you to keep your eye on the long game. She believes the strategy piece behind everything that she does is the key to her success. Chantal asks us to think not just about just selling our services, but focus on the overall blueprint of our business. In addition to providing a service, she invites us to think about the following when visioning your best future career:

1. Who is your target market?

2. What do they want?

3. What sort of products and services do you need to deliver to them?

4. What does your business look like - not only right now in this present moment, but what will it look like in six months, in 12 months and in three years?

5. What are the financial goals that you are setting for your business?

6. What's the vision that you have?

7. What's the mission that you are trying to achieve?

We move to talk about the struggles that can arise when trying to balance our passion with the idea of making a profit from our passion. Chantal believes there are key areas that she feels are essential to turning passion into a profitable career.

1. Identify your passion and ask yourself is it a sustainable interest?

2. Can you stay in it for the long game?

3. Are you confident that there is enough content, products or services that you can provide to this market to make it sustainable?

4. Is this market big enough to make it sustainable?

5. Is it something that you can build a business around?

Chantal reminds us that doing research around the needs of our target market is absolutely key. That will mean going out and talking to your customers, talking to the people who you feel are your target market. And in addition to researching your target market – research your competition.

After looking at your competitors (for inspiration) find your unique point of difference or your unique selling point - what can you offer that nobody else can offer? Chantal also encourages to take the time to check back in every so often with the people we want to serve to make sure we stay on top of the changing needs of our customers.

Chantal wants us all to remember that while it is important to collect that data, and stay on top of the research - that nothing will beat sitting down for face to face conversations with the people you want to help. Even if your business in online use the amazing technology like Skype and Zoom to look people in the eye as you connect and collaborate with your audience.
“People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Additional Takeaways:

1. Always be a student and always be learning, both inside and outside of your industry
2. Ask for help and find a mentor
3. If you go to conferences and events be sure to step outside of your circle and take the time to meet and connect with people you don’t know
4. Get your backend systems in place so you can run a great business on the front end/
5. Make your business as efficient as possible
6. At first, try all things and then narrow down your market as you learn where you do your best work and who you enjoy working with the most
7. Put your learning time into the areas where you feel the least confident